I spoke at an event organised by my department at City University last night on ‘Labour’s View of the World’. Unsurprisingly I concentrated on the economic aspects of this. These were my speaking notes. The themes will recur on the blog today and later:

As usual, click on the image and a new tab will open with a bigger version. If that is not big enough click on that image again.

8 Responses to “Labour should ride its luck”

Will the National Investment Bank attempt to pick winners or focus on social investments? If the former, is there any evidence that we can do that now? Or was our record in the 60’s and 70’s actually not as bad as the media suggested?

Having read your notes and The Joy of Tax, I am supportive of most of what you say. The main reservation I have, and it is an important one, is that your proposals, even if followed over many years, would not restore the level of equality back to pre 1980 levels – and that in itself is a very modest ambition. I believe the only way Labour can gain power is by showing people the true level of inequality and promising to make a correction whilst improving the economy.

Increasing the share of wages in GDP would have a very modest effect. The wealth gap would still widen. Are all economists frightened to talk about the elephant in the room – the Duke of Westminster? The concentration of wealth in the hands of one person (or family) and similar people is not only utterly immoral, it stifles the economy.